D-TRANSECT
Crossing the Waste Lands of the Huveaune Valley:
Plant Spread, Vernacular Practices, Landscape Mediations
Marie-Madeleine Ozdoba, Frédéric Pousin
Laboratoire de recherche en paysage (LAREP)
Ecole nationale supérieure du paysage de Versailles-Marseille
D-TRANSECT RESEARCH TEAM
LAREP (research laboratory in landscape, ENSP Versailles-Marseille)
Architecture, ecology, ethno-ecology
LPED (research laboratory in environmental and population development,
Université Aix-Marseille)
Ecology, environmental sociology
CRESSON (Centre for research on sonic space & urban environment, ENSA
Grenoble)
Architecture
COLOCO
Landscape architects
BAZAR URBAIN
Multi-disciplinary collective of urbanists
ZOOM
Architecture and urban interventions
collective, video artists
D-TRANSECT
ITTECOP Program, 2013-2014 (24 months)
Research objectives
1. Interrogating the widening of a railway-infrastructure in terms of
landscape, ecology and socio-ethnology
1. Developing a method combining multiple disciplinary approaches
1. Developing the Transect as a tool for organizing the debate between
multiple protagonists, around the current changes in the valley
1. THE TRANSECT
What is a transect?
The transect is a graphic
projection that makes visible the
relations occurring in the long
term, linking human activity and
physical environments.
P. Geddes, 1905
‘The Valley section and the basic occupations’
1. THE TRANSECT
What is a transect?
Sequent occupance of space
International Geographical Union, 1950s
2. WHY THE TRANSECT?
INFRASTRUCTURAL CHANGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PROJECTS
The transect as a place of encounter:
- of the disciplines that compose landscape:
ecology, geography, ethno-ecology, sociology and design
- of the people involved in the territory:
inhabitants, technicans, politicians, researchers, designers
2. WHY THE TRANSECT?
INFRASTRUCTURAL CHANGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PROJECTS
ECOLOGICAL COMPENSATION  PROJECT
From calculation compensatons…
to envisioning projects
3. THE SITE
The lower valley of the Huveaune river,
between Aubagne and Marseille
A50 Highway
Regional railway line
High speed TGV line


widening in progress
in development
3. THE SITE
WHAT PROJECTS AND WHAT LANDSCAPES CAN THE WIDENING OF THE
RAILWAY-INFRASTRUCTURE BRING ABOUT?
FOCUS ON THE WASTE LANDS
Distribution of the waste lands along the Huveaune valley (D-Transect map)
3. THE SITE
WHAT PROJECTS AND WHAT LANDSCAPES CAN THE WIDENING OF THE
RAILWAY-INFRASTRUCTURE BRING ABOUT?
FOCUS ON THE WASTE LANDS
Diffusion of plant species
Alternative social practices
4. RESEARCH PROCESS
1st step: Gathering local players
January 2013
« Vallée de l’Huveaune » Workshop in Marseille
Collecting several visions of the valley-territory
Participants
 D-TRANSECT research team
 Partners of the D-TRANSECT project
RFF
City of Marseille
 Local associations and urbanists
RESEARCH PROCESS
2nd step: Workshops on site
13
12
April 2013
11
6
Départ
Site-exploration workshop in the Huveaune
Valley
Exploring the infrastructure within its territory
7
8
10
5
4
9
3
2
1
Itinerary of the site exploration
- Infrastructural rail & road knot area-
 interdisciplinary site-exploration teams
 Surveys in the valley
 Determining the areas of study
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #1: longitudinal transect
MOUNTAINS
SEA
Marseille
1.
MOUNTAINS
Aubagne
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #1: longitudinal transect
For a renewed perception of the valley’s landscape and floral diversity
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #2: valley transect
MOUNTAINS
SEA
Aubagne
Marseille
2.
MOUNTAINS
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #2: valley transect
Cutting a strategic site concentrating the features of the valley :
The « verrou de Saint Marcel »
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #2: valley transect
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #3: knot - transect
MOUNTAINS
SEA
3.
Aubagne
Marseille
MOUNTAINS
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #3: knot – transect
Responding to the specifics of the « knot »
situation between infrastructures:
road, rail and river.
RESEARCH PROCESS
3rd step:
Developing
the Transects
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
TRANSECT #3: knot – transect
RESEARCH PROCESS
4th step:
Implementing
mediation
Transect
le long
de l’infrastructure
ferroviaire
 On the 17th of mai, a « table longue » workshop in Marseille will
experiment the transect as a tool for mediation and impulsing projects.
Previous « table longue » consultations, Bazar Urbain
5. NEXT STEPS
EXPECTED RESULTS:
1. Projects for the Huveaune valley
2. Make the experiment appropriable for new contexts:
towards the transect as a new tool for urban mediation
3. New thinking about interdisciplinarity